Method and apparatus to allocate and recycle telephone numbers in a call-tracking system

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method. The method includes dynamically allocating a telephone number to an advertisement on a just-in-time basis; and if the telephone number is not called for a predefined period of time, then unallocating the telephone number.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present patent application is a continuation application of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/014,073, filed Dec. 15, 2004, whichclaims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.60/568,156, filed May 4, 2004, both of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to telephone-call tracking. In particular, theinvention relates to tracking telephone calls for the purpose ofmeasuring call activity and billing directories and their advertisersaccording to this activity.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Performance based advertising refers to a type of advertising in whichan advertiser pays only for a measurable event that is a direct resultof an advertisement being viewed by a consumer. For example, paidinclusion advertising is a form of performance-based search advertising.With paid inclusion advertising, an advertisement is included within asearch result page of a key word search. Each selection (“click”) of theadvertisement from the results page is the measurable event for whichthe advertiser pays. In other words, payment by the advertiser is on aper click basis.

Another form of performance-based advertising includes paid placementadvertising. Paid placement advertising is similar to paid inclusionadvertising in that payment is on a per click basis. However, with paidplacement advertising an advertiser ranks a particular advertisement sothat it appears or is placed at a particular spot, e.g., at the top of asearch engine result page, thereby to increase the odds of theadvertisement being selected.

Both forms of performance-based advertising, i.e., paid placement andpaid inclusion, suffer from the limitation that an advertiser orparticipant within a paid placement or paid inclusion advertisingprogram is required to have a web presence, in the form of a web page.However, there are advertisers that either (a) do not have web pages, or(b) have web pages that are not effective at capturing the value of aweb visitor, and are therefore unable, or unwilling, to participate inperformance-based advertising, as described above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a method and apparatus to provide pay-per-callperformance based advertising is provided. In the method, a telephonenumber is dynamically allocated to an advertisement on a just-in-timebasis and, if the telephone number is not displayed or called forpredefined periods of time, then the telephone number is unallocated andrecycled.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows how clients and advertisers interact with each other usinga paid placement, or a paid inclusion advertising model, in accordancewith the prior art;

FIG. 2 shows an interaction between clients and advertisers, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of operations performed in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows a high level functional description of a system inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates the Account Creation and Management module of thesystem, in greater detail;

FIG. 6 illustrates the Advertisement Publication Module of the system,in greater detail;

FIG. 7 illustrates the Call Handling Module of the system, in greaterdetail;

FIG. 8A shows an example of a user interface that may be presented to auser during advertisement creation, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 8B shows a campaign management interface that is presented to auser, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a search engine result page, which includesan advertisement generated, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 10 shows an example of an email alert that is sent to anadvertiser, when a call is generated, in accordance with one embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 11 shows a high level hardware block diagram of a system that maybe used to implement the system, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention;

FIGS. 12-19 describe processes in accordance with embodiments of theinvention to track/credit demand partners;

FIG. 20 presents a flow diagram describing the process of determining ademand partner to be credited with serving an advertisement thatproduced a phone call;

FIG. 21 presents a flow diagram describing the processes of allocating atelephone number for an advertiser/advertisement to multiple demandpartners;

FIG. 22 presents a flow diagram describing one embodiment of recyclingtelephone numbers;

FIG. 23 provides a flow diagram describing additional processes forallocating telephone numbers in accordance with one embodiment; and

FIG. 24 presents a flow diagram describing the processes of maintainingthe separate pools of unique telephone numbers in accordance with oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to oneskilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shownin block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the invention.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features aredescribed which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirementsfor some embodiments but not other embodiments.

FIG. 1 of the drawings illustrates how clients and advertisers interactwith each other in accordance with the paid placement, and paidinclusion advertising models of the prior art. Referring to FIG. 1, anumber of clients indicated by reference numeral 10 are coupled to awide area network (WAN) 14, such as the Internet via a communicationspath 12. Advertisers 16 are coupled to the WAN 14 via a communicationspath 18. The communications paths 12 and 18 may support the TCP/IPprotocols, in one embodiment. Each advertiser 16 has a web page 20 whichin accordance with the paid placement, and paid inclusion advertisingmodels described above, may be included in a results page of a key wordsearch initiated by a user of a client 10, which search is performed byan online search engine 19. Based on the paid placement, or the paidinclusion models, the web page 20 of an advertiser 16 is included withina results page compiled by the search engine 19 and sent via thecommunications path 12 to the client 10 that initiated the search, sothat the web page 20 may be selected or viewed by a user of the client10 that requested the search. As noted above, if an advertiser 16 doesnot have a web page 20, or does not have a web page 20 that is effectiveat capturing the value of a web visitor, then currently, such anadvertiser may not participate, or effectively participate, inperformance-based marketing such as paid placement, and paid inclusionprograms.

Further, the techniques disclosed herein are not limited to publishingor providing advertisements for the advertisers 16 through web pages.Thus, in alternative embodiments, the unique telephone number assignedto an advertiser may be published or provided using a directory withoutthe creation of a web page for the advertiser. The directory may be anexisting directory or a new directory. The placement or ranking of thetelephone number within the directory may be controlled through rankingtechniques described below.

Referring now to FIG. 2 of the drawings, a method for allowingadvertisers to participate in a pay per call advertising program,without requiring that the advertisers have a web presence, inaccordance with one embodiment, is illustrated. As will be seen, theclients 10 are coupled to the WAN 14 via the communications path 12, asbefore. However, the communications path 18 between the advertisers 16and the WAN 14 is purely optional. In other words, the techniques of thepresent invention, allow an advertiser 16 to participate in aperformance-based advertising program without the requirement that theadvertiser 16 be coupled to the WAN 14 via the communications path 18.In fact, in accordance with the techniques disclosed herein, it is notnecessary that the advertisers 16 have web pages 20. Instead, inaccordance with the techniques disclosed herein, an alternative non-webbased communications path 22 is provided between the clients 10 and theadvertisers 16. According to embodiments of the present invention, thenon-web based communications path 22 may be provided by a conventionaltelephone network. Alternatively, the non-web based communications path22 may utilize Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to couplea client through switches of the network 14, and switches of a publictelephone network, in a manner that does not require the advertisers 16to have a connection to the network 14. In addition, the advertisercould be notified via other media channels, such as email, chat, instantmessage, etc.

FIG. 3 of the drawings illustrates a technique to establish the non-webbased communications path 22 of FIG. 2, in accordance with oneembodiment. Referring to FIG. 3, at block 26, a unique telephone numberis assigned to an advertiser 16. Thereafter, at block 28, anadvertisement associated with the advertiser 16 is provisioned orpublished on a publication or media channel on behalf of the advertiser.The advertisement includes either the unique telephone number, or areference to the unique telephone number. At block 30, telephone callsto the unique telephone number are monitored, as will be described. Atblock 32, the advertiser is charged based on the phone call activitythrough the assigned telephone number, as will be described.

FIG. 4 of the drawings shows a functional description of a system toimplement the method of FIG. 3 is shown. Referring to FIG. 4, the systemincludes account creation and management module 34, advertisementpublication module 36, call handling module 38, and billing module 40.In alternative embodiments, additional, less, or different modules maybe included in the system without departing from the invention.

The components of the account creation and management module 34, inaccordance with one embodiment, are shown in more detail in FIG. 5 ofthe drawings. Referring to FIG. 5, it will be seen that the accountcreation and management module 34 includes a user interface module 44,an advertisement creation module 46, and a payment specification module48. The user interface module 44 includes logic to present informationto a user, and to receive information from the user. For example, in oneembodiment, the user interface module 44 causes a web page such as theweb page 112 of FIG. 8 to be displayed on a browser of a client.

The advertisement creation module 46 includes text creation logic 50.The purpose of text creation logic 50 is to allow an advertiser 16, oran agent working on behalf of an advertiser 16, to input text for anadvertisement which is ultimately created by the advertisement creationmodule 46. In order to enhance understanding of the present invention,for the remainder of this description, a local business enterprisecalled “Burt's Plumbing” will be used as an example of an advertiserthat may benefit from the techniques disclosed herein. Burt's Plumbingmay or not have direct connectivity to the network 14. If Burt'sPlumbing does not have direct connectivity to the network 14, then arepresentative of Burt's Plumbing (hereinafter “Burt”) will have to gainaccess to a computer that does have connectivity to the network 14 inorder to view the web page 112 of FIG. 8A. For example, Burt could use acomputer of a friend, a computer at a local library, etc. In anotherembodiment, a search operator, an Internet yellow page provider or othertype of publisher could perform or administer this activity on behalf ofBurt. The text creation logic 50 allows Burt to input for e.g. the text“Burt's Plumbing in San Francisco. Check out our special deals,” whichwill be included in the advertisement when it is rendered. The module 46also includes key word association logic 57 that allows Burt to inputcertain key words which are then associated with Burt's advertisement.The idea here is that when one of the clients 10 initiates a searchthrough the search engine 19 using a key word that matches one of thekey words entered by Burt, then Burt's advertisement will be displayedwithin a result of the search. Since Burt's Plumbing is not a nationaloperation or enterprise it is necessary to display Burt's advertisementto clients within a certain geographic area. Thus, the module 46includes location determination logic 54 that builds a geographiclocation association to Burt's advertisement. In one embodiment, thelocation determination logic 54 allows Burt to select a particulargeographic location of interest, say for example San Francisco, so thatBurt's advertisement will only be displayed to clients within the SanFrancisco area.

The module 46 also includes telephone number auto generation logic 56that automatically generates a unique telephone number, maps the uniquetelephone number to Burt's actual telephone number such that when theunique number is called, Bert's phone rings, and associates the uniquephone number with Burt's advertisement. In one embodiment, the telephonenumber that is automatically generated, may be a toll free number. Inone embodiment, the telephone number may be a local number with the samearea code as Burt's actual telephone number. In one embodiment, thetelephone number may be an easily recognizable 800 number, modified by aunique extension mapped to Burt's business telephone number. Forexample, in one embodiment, a number could be the number“1-800-YEL-PAGES-1234.” The 1234 portion of the 800 number is the uniqueextension that is mapped to Burt's telephone number so that when asearcher calls the number 1-800-YEL-PAGES-1234, the call will beautomatically routed to Burt's telephone as will be described in moredetail below.

In one embodiment, the advertisement creation module 46, automaticallyinserts the unique telephone number assigned to Burt directly intoBurt's advertisement. Alternatively, click to call logic 58 may beinvoked in order to generate a button, or a clickable telephone number,which is automatically inserted into Burt's advertisement, so that whenthe button or telephone number is selected or clicked by a useroperating a client 10, a telephone call is automatically initiated toBurt's telephone number.

The module 46 also includes on/off logic 60 that allows Burt toselectively turn on or turn off an advertisement. Alternatively, theturn on/off logic 60 allows Burt to assign an active or an inactivestatus to a particular advertisement. When an advertisement is turnedoff or flagged as inactive, it is considered withdrawn, at leasttemporarily, from an advertisement campaign, and is therefore not madepublished e.g. through the search engine 19. Alternatively, onlyadvertisements that are turned on, or have a status of “active” arepublished in accordance with the techniques disclosed herein.

The module 46 includes smart connect logic 62 that allows automaticrouting of calls to various telephone numbers. For example, Burt mayinclude a primary telephone number, and one or more secondary telephonenumbers to be associated with his advertisement. Thus, in oneembodiment, the smart connect logic 62 first routes the call to Burt'sprimary telephone number, and if no connection is achieved, thencyclically through Burt's list of secondary telephone numbers, until aconnection is achieved.

The module 46 also includes arrange a call logic 64 that allows asearcher to input a time at which the searcher wishes to speak to Burt.The system then contacts Burt in order to arrange the call with thesearcher. Burt may be contacted in a variety of ways, for example bysending a facsimile to Burt, by sending an email to Burt, by telephoningBurt, etc. to alert him of the arranged telephone call. In alternativeembodiments, additional, less, or different logic may be included in theadvertisement creation module without departing from the invention.

The payment specification module 48, allows Burt to select a particularmodel and various parameters associated with billing. The module 48includes flat fee logic 66 that presents an option to Burt through theuser interface module 44, which if selected will cause Burt to be billedon a flat fee basis for each telephone call received within a particularcategory, or subcategory. The module 48 also includes bid for placementlogic 68, that, through the user interface module 44, presents an optionto Burt to choose to be billed on a bid-for-placement basis, asdescribed above. The logic 68 supports proxy bids, and maximum/minimumbids.

The module 48 also includes spending level logic 70 that allows Burt tospecify daily/weekly/monthly spending levels. The specified spendinglevel essentially defines a budget per time period such that if thebudget is exceeded within a particular time period, then Burt'sadvertisement will be automatically flagged as inactive or turned off,for the remainder of the time period. Burt is notified of this activityby the system and Burt is given the option of reactivating hisadvertisement by adding additional funds to his account.

In one embodiment, the billing module 40 includes logic to automaticallywaive charges for leads (calls) from searchers/customers who have calledBurt recently. For example, if a customer calls on one day, and thendials the same number for a follow-up call a day later, the systemautomatically waives the charge for the second call since this lead hasalready been paid for. Thus, the advertiser (Burt) does not have to beconcerned about a customer using the advertised telephone number morethan once and causing multiple charges. In one embodiment, the system ofthe present invention may be configured to waive the charges on leadsfrom customers who have already called a particular advertiser within aspecified number of days. In alternative embodiments, additional, less,or different logic may be included in the without departing from theinvention.

Referring now to FIG. 6 of the drawings, the components of theadvertisement publication module 36, are shown in greater detail. Aswill be seen, the module 36 includes an advertisement rendering engine74, and an advertisement syndication engine 76. The purpose of theadvertisement rendering engine 74 is to automatically render Burt'sadvertisement on a particular channel. In some embodiments, theadvertisement rendering engine 74 causes a campaign management interface113 (see FIG. 8B of the drawings) to be displayed to an advertiser. Theinterface 113 allows the advertiser to choose a channel, e.g., SBC,QwestDex, Ingenio, and a category in which the advertisement is to beprovisioned/published. The interface 113 allows the advertiser tospecify the maximum bid amount that the advertiser is willing to pay toprovision the advertisement using the selected channel and category.FIG. 9 of the drawings shows an example of a web page 112 within whichincludes an advertisement rendered/provisioned in accordance with thetechniques described herein. In one embodiment, this publication channelmay be a web-based publication channel which is operated by an operatorof the system of the present invention.

Alternatively, the syndication engine 76 may be used to syndicate Burt'sadvertisement to a number of third parties that host publicationchannels selected by Burt. Thus, in one embodiment, the syndicationengine 76 may cause Burt's advertisement to be syndicated to third partysearch engines, Internet yellow pages, online directories, and othermedia.

As will be seen in FIG. 6 of the drawings, the advertisement renderingengine 74 includes price per call logic 78, activity history logic 80,call status logic 82, connection success logic 84, manual indexing logic86, and random logic 88. Each of the logic components 78-88 controls aparameter that forms a basis of how Burt's advertisement is ultimatelyrendered. The price per call logic 78 causes Burt's advertisement to bepublished on a price per call basis. Thus, for example, if Burt iswilling only to pay a low amount for each call, then his advertisementwill be placed or ranked low down within a search result page orcategory of advertisers. Alternatively, if Burt is willing to pay a highprice per call, then his advertisement will be placed higher up in thesearch result page or category of advertisers. The table below shows howthe price per call logic 78 would rank or place advertisers within achannel based on a bid amount per call that an advertiser is willing topay:

Placement Advertiser (Bid Amount per call) 1 800-349-2398 ($3.88) 2866-324-3242 ($3.22) 3 800-323-5321 ($2.01)

The activity history logic 80 analyzes the number of calls Burt receivedin a give time period, for example, the last day/week/month, and willrank Burt's advertisement within a display page based on the activityhistory. The call status logic 82, examines the status (active orinactive) of Burt's advertisement, and selectively publishes Burt'sadvertisement based on the status. The connection success logic 84measures a connection success rate for calls to the telephone numberassigned to Burt's advertisement and ranks Burt's advertisement within adisplay page based on the connection success rate. For example, ifBurt's telephone number enjoys a low connection success rate then thelogic 84 will cause Burt's advertisement to be ranked lowly within apublication page. The manual indexing logic 86 allows an operator tomanually index or rank Burt's advertisement within a publication page.The random logic 88 allows Burt's advertisement to be randomly ranked orplaced within a result page. In one embodiment, the ranking of Burt'sadvertisement within a display page may be based on any combination ofthe parameters controlled by the logic components 78-88, which may bedictated by a third party who employs the system. In alternativeembodiments, additional, less, or different logic may be included in theadvertisement rendering engine 74 without departing from the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 7 of the drawings, the components within the callhandling module 38 include a call routing engine 92, and a callmonitoring engine 94. As will be seen, the call routing engine 92includes redirect logic 96 to cause redirection of a telephone call tothe number assigned to Burt's advertisement. The redirection is to atelephone number specified by Burt during creation of the advertisementusing the advertisement creation module 46. The call routing engine 92also includes VoIP logic 98 to route a telephone call to or from aclient to a telephone number specified by Burt in the advertisementusing VoIP technology.

The call routing engine 92 may also include prompt logic 99 that causesa prompt to be played to a caller before routing of a telephone call toBurt's telephone number. In one embodiment, the prompt logic 99 plays aninformation prompt to the caller to inform the caller of Burt's actualtelephone number. Thus, the caller may, in future, call Burt directlyusing Burt's actual telephone number instead of the telephone numberassigned to Burt by the system. In such cases, Burt will not be billedby the system for telephone calls to his actual telephone number. In oneembodiment, the prompt logic 99 may also cause an information prompt tobe played to Burt to inform Burt of the source of the telephone call. Insome cases, the prompt logic 99 may cause an email or facsimile alert tobe automatically generated and sent to an advertiser, in order to informthe advertiser of the telephone number of the caller. An example of suchan email is shown in FIG. 10 of the drawings and is marked as referencenumeral 116. In alternative embodiments, additional, less, or differentlogic may be included in the call routing engine 92 without departingfrom the invention.

The call monitoring engine 94 includes call number logic 100 to trackthe number of calls generated in response to Burt's advertisement. Thecall monitoring engine 94 also includes Automatic Number Identification(ANI) logic 102 to identify the number of unique numbers of callers thatcall Burt, automatically. The call monitoring engine also includes calllength logic 104 that monitors the length of each call to Burt.Connection status logic 108 monitors whether a call is successful,whether an engaged or busy tone is encountered, or whether Burt simplydid not answer his telephone. Based on information supplied by logiccomponents 100-106, a report is compiled and may be viewed by Burt. Inone embodiment, the report includes a number of calls, the number ofcalls from unique telephone numbers, the telephone numbers of thecallers, the length of each call, and the number of calls that weresuccessful, for which an engaged tone was returned, or that wentunanswered. The report may be used by Burt in order to monitor theeffectiveness of an advertisement campaign, and to optimize thecampaign. In alternative embodiments, additional, less, or differentlogic may be included in the call monitoring engine 94 without departingfrom the invention.

In one embodiment, the advertising publication module may publish theadvertisement on a telephone-based advertising service. For example, theadvertisement can be delivered to a consumer through audio as part of avoice portal or telephone-based directory such as a 411 telephonedirectory.

Referring to FIG. 11 of the drawings, reference numeral 150 generallyindicates hardware that may be used to implement the above-describedsystem. The hardware 150 typically includes at least one processor 152coupled to a memory 154. The processor 152 may represent one or moreprocessors (e.g., microprocessors), and the memory 154 may representrandom access memory (RAM) devices comprising a main storage of thehardware 150, as well as any supplemental levels of memory e.g., cachememories, non-volatile or back-up memories (e.g. programmable or flashmemories), read-only memories, etc. In addition, the memory 154 may beconsidered to include memory storage physically located elsewhere in thehardware 150, e.g. any cache memory in the processor 152, as well as anystorage capacity used as a virtual memory, e.g., as stored on a massstorage device 160.

The hardware 150 also typically receives a number of inputs and outputsfor communicating information externally. For interface with a user oroperator, the hardware 150 may include one or more user input devices156 (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, etc.) and a display 158 (e.g., a CathodeRay Tube (CRT) monitor, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panel).

For additional storage, the hardware 150 may also include one or moremass storage devices 160, e.g., a floppy or other removable disk drive,a hard disk drive, a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD), an opticaldrive (e.g. a Compact Disk (CD) drive, a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)drive, etc.) and/or a tape drive, among others. Furthermore, thehardware 150 may include an interface with one or more networks 162(e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wirelessnetwork, and/or the Internet among others) to permit the communicationof information with other computers coupled to the networks. It shouldbe appreciated that the hardware 150 typically includes suitable analogand/or digital interfaces between the processor 152 and each of thecomponents 154, 156, 158 and 162 as is well known in the art.

The hardware 150 operates under the control of an operating system 164,and executes various computer software applications 166, components,programs, objects, modules, etc. (e.g. a program or module whichperforms operations described above. Moreover, various applications,components, programs, objects, etc. may also execute on one or moreprocessors in another computer coupled to the hardware 150 via a network152, e.g. in a distributed computing environment, whereby the processingrequired to implement the functions of a computer program may beallocated to multiple computers over a network.

As discussed above, the syndicate engine 76 is used to syndicate Burt'sadvertisement to a number of third parties. Additional examples of thirdparties include companies such as Yahoo!®, MSN®, AOL®, and other similardemand partners. Often times, these demand partners (also referred toherein as syndication partners) receive a percentage of the advertisingrevenue generated via the pay-per-call method and system described,herein. Thus, as in the example of the table above, the advertiser ofplacement 1 pays $3.88 per call received to phone number 800-349-2398.Now suppose the call to the advertiser of placement 1, resulted from anadvertisement presented on a demand partner's website. The demandpartner would be entitled to a percentage of that $3.88. The presentmethod and system offers multiple embodiments for tracking, monitoring,and determining demand partner compensation.

In one embodiment, described in the flow diagram of FIG. 12, in process1202 an advertiser (also referred to herein as a merchant or listing) isgiven a separate telephone number for each separate demand partner thatis posting the merchant's advertisement using. As described herein, inmultiple embodiments, telephonic references, including telephone numbersand telephone extensions corresponding to a base telephone number, areassigned using the telephone number auto generation logic 56.

In one embodiment, the alias phone number is mapped to the advertiser'sactual phone number, and calls made to the alias are monitored in orderto track the respective demand partners. Therefore, in process 1204billing module 40 tracks and/or credits demand partners a percentage ofthe revenue charged to the advertiser (or collected from the advertiser)for calls placed to the advertiser's alias telephone numbercorresponding to the respective demand partner.

In another embodiment, described in the flow diagram of FIG. 13, inprocess 1302 an advertiser receives a single/base (the same) telephonenumber for a set of the demand partners. In process 1304, a separateextension is assigned to the advertiser for each of the separate demandpartners. More specifically, the separate demand partners list the sametelephone number for the advertiser, but also include an extensionunique to the respective demand partner. For example, a listing couldhave the number “(800) new-cars” for the set of demand partners, buteach demand partner posting the common telephone number for theadvertiser would also provide a separate extension corresponding to therespective demand partner (e.g., ext. 102 corresponding to the XYZsyndication partner, ext. 104 corresponding to the ABC syndicationpartner, etc.) In process 1306, billing module 40 tracks and/or creditsa demand partner a percentage of the revenue charged to the advertiser(or collected from the advertiser), for calls placed to the advertiservia the telephone extension corresponding to the respective demandpartner.

In an alternative embodiment, described in the flow diagram of FIG. 14,in process 1402 a demand partner uses a base telephone (i.e., a single)number for a set of advertisers. In process 1404, the demand partnerprovides a separate extension to each of the advertisers using the samebase number. For example, the demand partner could use the telephonenumber (800) Call XYZ for a set of advertisers, and provide theextension 102 for Joe's plumbing, and extension 104 for Carl's plumbing,etc. In process 1406, billing module 40 tracks and/or credits a demandpartner a percentage of the revenue charged to the advertiser (orcollected from the advertiser), for calls placed to the advertiser viathe base telephone number corresponding to the respective demand partnerand the unique telephone extension assigned to the advertiser at therespective demand partner.

According to another embodiment, a click-to-reveal method is proposed,as described in co-pending U.S. Patent Application No. 60/552,124,entitled “A Method and Apparatus to Provide Pay-Per-Call PerformanceBased Advertising and Billing” filed on Mar. 10, 2004, hereinincorporated by reference. As described in the flow diagram of FIG. 15,in process 1502 a user is presented with an advertisement via a demandpartner's website. The advertisement does not show the advertiser'scomplete phone number, but instead contains a hyperlink to reveal theadvertiser's phone number, or the remaining portion of the telephonenumber. In process 1504, the Advertisement rendering engine 74 monitorsthe number of click-throughs to reveal the advertiser's number. In oneembodiment, it is assumed that each click-through from a demand partnerresults in a call to the respective advertiser. As a result, in process1506 billing module 40 tracks and/or calculates an amount to credit ademand partner based at least in part on a number of click-throughs toreveal an advertiser's telephone number.

In yet another alternative embodiment, a demand partner is provided witha click to call format. In one embodiment, as described in the flowdiagram of FIG. 16, in process 1602 in addition to listing a telephonenumber for an advertiser (or in place of listing a telephone number forthe advertiser) a link is provided by the demand partner to initiateestablishing a telephone connection between the viewer/customer and theadvertiser in response to the viewer/customer activating/selecting thehyperlink provided. In one embodiment, in process 1604, in response toactivating/selecting the hyperlink provided, the viewer/customer isprompted for their telephone number to establish the telephoneconnection with the advertiser. After the customer enters theirtelephone number, a telephone connection is established between thecustomer and the advertiser.

In yet another embodiment, if the viewer/customer has a VoIPcommunications device, VoIP logic 98 may connect the advertiser to theviewer/customer without the need for the customer/viewer to providetheir telephone number. The VoIP communications device includestelephony devices attached to the user's computer, as well as mobilecommunication devices, such as PDA's and cellular phones.

In the embodiment employing a click to call (for PSTN and VoIPconnections), in process 1604, a demand partner providing the click tocall option would be tracked/credited (i.e., a percentage of the chargeto the advertiser) each time a viewer/customer selects/activates a clickto call icon for the respective advertiser.

In another embodiment, described in the flow diagram of FIG. 17, inprocess 1702 an advertiser is given one telephone number for a set ofdemand partners. In process 1704, credits to the demand partners forcalls placed to the advertiser's listed telephone number are proratedbased on a number of page views for the advertiser's telephone numberlisting via the respective demand partners. For example, if 70% of theadvertiser's page views are accessed via demand partner ABC, and 30% ofthe advertiser's page views are accessed via demand partner XYZ, the ABCdemand partner would receive 70% and the demand partner XYZ wouldreceive 30% of the credits payable to the demand partners for callsplaced to the advertiser's listed telephone number.

In another embodiment, described in the flow diagram of FIG. 18, inprocess 1802 at least a first set of advertisers are given uniquetelephonic reference for each demand partner. One or more advertisersare each given one telephonic reference for a set demand partners.

In process 1804, a statistical sampling of calls to advertisers with theunique telephonic reference is generated. In one embodiment, thestatistical sampling represents a sampling of a percentage of calls toan advertiser (or set of advertisers) that originate from anadvertisement listed by a first demand partner compared to calls thatoriginate from the same (or similar) advertisement listed by otherdemand partners. In one embodiment, the samplings may be separated basedon a category of advertisers (e.g., restaurants, automobiles, etc.).

In process 1806, the samplings are used as a basis fortracking/crediting the demand partners with a percentage of the chargesto at least a set of the advertisers. Consider the example advertisers 1and 2 are given each give unique telephone, and 70% of the calls toadvertisers 1 and 2 are from telephonic references listed by partnerABC. Given the example, an assumption is made that 70% of the calls tothe advertisers using a common number among the demand partners, areoriginated from advertisements listed by partner ABC.

Therefore, in one embodiment, based on the statistical sampling, partnerABC would be credited for 70% of the calls placed to the advertisersusing a common number among the demand partners. In one embodiment,tracking/crediting the demand partners based on the statistical samplingcould also be applied to the advertisers using unique numbers among thedemand partners.

Allocating and Recycling Telephone Numbers

As described above, telephone-call tracking is used to determine thenumber of phone calls a particular party, or directory, has received. Itcan be useful for a variety of purposes. It is particularly useful inmeasuring the success of advertising. For instance, a telephonedirectory may offer advertising placements to its advertisers, such asplumbers. By tracking the number of phone calls a particularadvertisement has received, the directory can demonstrate the value ofits advertising to the advertiser.

Telephone-call tracking can be used to measure the effectiveness of avariety of advertising vehicles in addition to the physical yellow-pagesphone book. Newspaper classifieds can utilize call tracking, as cantelevision commercials that display phone numbers for consumers to call.By counting the number of telephone calls such advertisements receive,the campaign's effectiveness can be measured. This is of benefit both tothe advertiser and to the directory.

Telephone-call tracking can be also used as such in directories that areonline, such as an online yellow pages. Similarly, it can be used totrack the success of online search advertising, such as keywordadvertising.

Telephone-call tracking is particularly useful in pay-for-performanceadvertising systems, as described in several embodiments above. Inpay-for-performance systems, advertisers pay when an advertisementperforms. For instance, an advertiser can pay $1 each time a potentialcustomer clicks on an online-search advertisement. Similarly, inpay-per-call advertising systems, such as that covered in ApplicationNumber X (application Ser. No. 10/872,117), an advertiser's payments arelinked to the number of calls that advertiser receives. In such a payper call advertising system, call tracking is vital, since counting thenumber of calls received determines the amount that the advertiser mustpay. In one embodiment, not only are the number of calls receivedcounted but also the time of the call, since in one embodiment anadvertiser may bid to pay a higher price per call in order to receive amore prominent placement for their advertisement.

Not only is it important to track the number of calls and precise timeof calls, but the demand source at which the caller viewed theadvertisement may also be tracked. Online directories can have manydifferent external web sites through which they syndicate the sameadvertisers, and it is important to know from which web site the phonecall originated so that, in some cases, the directory can compensate theexternal web site for having brought customer. Application Number Y(Application No. 60/560,926) outlines this case.

Tracking phone calls may include publishing a unique phone number thatis different from the advertiser's standard phone number. When a callerviews the advertisement, the unique phone number appears, and the callerdials it. The call coming in on the unique phone number is thenrerouted, using the call tracker's telephony equipment, to theadvertiser's standard phone number. In addition to rerouting the call,the call tracker also records that a call was made and the precise timeof the call. In a pay-per-call advertising system, this information canbe used to bill the advertiser for the call.

In cases where directories would also like to identify the demand sourceof the call, a single advertiser will have to be given multiple uniquephone numbers, one for each demand source where that advertiser appears.For instance, the advertisement of a single plumber might be displayedin two different online directories and three different online searchengines. In order to track which of these demand sources produced a callfrom a customer, the single plumber would have to be assigned fivedifferent unique telephone numbers. By monitoring which unique phonenumber was dialed, it can be determined which demand source deserves thecredit for producing the call.

A potential problem with this approach is that it can require very manyunique phone numbers. A single plumber could have five differentadvertisements, which each could be syndicated across 100 web-sitedirectories, resulting in the provisioning of 500 unique phone numbersjust to track the call distribution of a single plumber. A directorywith 100,000 advertisers would need many millions of unique phonenumbers to track call distribution. Unique phone numbers, either localnumbers or toll-free 1-800 numbers, can be expensive to provision. Usinglarge quantities of them as outlined above is prohibitively expensive.

One embodiment of the present invention, therefore, provides a system toallocate and recycle telephone numbers. In one embodiment, the telephonenumbers are allocated dynamically, only when they are needed. As aresult, far fewer numbers are necessary. For instance, it could be thata particular plumber's advertisement for “industrial shower heads” mightnever be displayed at a certain search engine website. It wouldtherefore be wasteful to allocate a unique phone number for thatadvertisement at that website. Only if a customer searches for“industrial shower heads” at that particular website should the system,dynamically, at that moment, allocate a unique phone number. This way,numbers would only be allocated when they are needed, and waste would bereduced.

In addition, one embodiment of the present invention recycles numbers,thereby further reducing the total amount of numbers needed. Forexample, if a certain amount of time has passed since a unique numberhas been displayed, the system may automatically consider the number“clean” and recycle it, placing it back into the pool of numbers.Similarly, if a certain amount of time has passed since a unique numberhas been called, the system may automatically consider the number“clean” and recycle it, placing it back into the pool of numbers. Usingthese and other parameters, one embodiment of the present inventionconserves and recycles unique telephone numbers, requiring lesstelephone numbers and potentially reducing cost.

FIG. 19 provides a flow diagram describing the processes of allocatingtelephone numbers in accordance with one embodiment. Referring to FIG.19, in process 1902 a telephone number is dynamically allocated to anadvertisement on a just-in-time basis. For example, the telephone numberis allocated in response to an end-user search submitted to a demandpartner that would call for a particular advertiser's telephone numberto be displayed. In one embodiment, a pool of unallocated telephonenumbers is maintained. An unallocated telephone number is a telephonenumber that is not preassigned or linked in any way to a particularadvertisement, advertiser, or demand partner. The process 1902 isperformed by selecting a telephone number from the pool of unallocatedtelephone numbers and allocating the selected telephone number to theadvertisement on a just-in-time basis. By use of the term “just-in-timebasis” it is meant that the telephone number remains in the pool ofunallocated telephone numbers and gets assigned or allocated to aparticular advertisement just before a customer is about to view anadvertisement that would include the telephone number.

In process 1904, if the telephone number that was allocated to theadvertisement is not called for a predefined period of time, then thetelephone number is unallocated and recycled into the pool ofunallocated telephone numbers. For example, in one embodiment, thepredefined period may be a fixed number of days. If no telephone call ismade to the telephone number, then the telephone number getsunallocated.

In reference to FIG. 19, if the allocated telephone number does getcalled within the predefined time period, then the telephone number iscorrelated with the advertisement/advertiser to which it was allocated.Once the telephone call using the allocated telephone number is made,then the allocated telephone number is assigned to the advertiserassociated with the advertisement (herein after the “associatedadvertisement”). Otherwise, if the allocated telephone number is notcalled, then the number remains free, and may be used for all demandpartners.

In one embodiment, if the advertisement served by a demand partnerresults in a query, but no telephone call, then the dynamicallyallocated telephone number is associated with the advertisement for apredefined period of time. If the dynamically allocated telephone numberis called within that predefined period of time, then the telephonenumber is associated with the advertisement for a longer period of time.

Referring again to FIG. 19, in process 1906, it is determined inconnection with which advertisement the call to the allocated telephonenumber occurred. This determination is made for purposes ofcompensating/crediting demand partner that was the effective cause ofthe telephone call to the allocated telephone number.

FIG. 20 presents a flow diagram describing the process of determining ademand partner to be credited with serving an advertisement thatproduced a phone call. In one embodiment, the determination is based ona temporal proximity between when a demand partner served the associatedadvertisement, and when the call occurred. In process 2002, if aparticular demand partner was the only demand partner that served theassociated advertisement within a predefined time period before the calloccurred, then in process 2004 the particular demand partner isdetermined to be the demand partner in connection with which the calloccurred. For example, if a demand partner X was the only demand partnerthat served the associated advertisement say within the past 30 minutes,then the demand partner X is determined to be the demand partner inconnection with which the telephone call was made.

In one embodiment, if more than one demand partner served the associatedadvertisement within a predefined time period before the call occurred,then in process 2006 the telephone call is counted as part of a pool ofdisputable telephone calls. In one embodiment, in process 2008 credit isgiven to particular demand partners for which calls are placed in thepool of disputable calls, based on the proportion of indisputable callsattributable to the particular demand partner. For example, if aparticular demand partner X has been attributed 70% off the indisputablecalls, then demand partner X will also be attributed 70% off the callsin the disputable pool.

In another embodiment, the same telephone number may be allocated todifferent demand partners for the same advertiser/advertisement, therebyto reduce the number of required telephone numbers. FIG. 21 presents aflow diagram describing the processes of allocating a telephone numberfor an advertiser/advertisement to multiple demand partners. In process2102, if an advertisement is served by a first demand partner, and thenby a second demand partner within a predefined period of time, say 30minutes, then in process 2104 the second demand partner would beallocated a new or different telephone number. However, if the serviceon the second demand partner occurs beyond the predefined period of time(30 minutes), then in process 2106 the same telephone number may beallocated to the second demand partner. In general, the longer theperiod within which no call occurs after the first service, the morefeasible it becomes to use the same telephone number allocated to thefirst demand partner since the probability of having a disputabletelephone.

Example Implementation of Allocating Telephone Numbers

An example of the one embodiment of the A web advertising companypromotes advertisements from local merchants—plumbers, roofers,dentists—all across the country. It promotes the advertisements bysyndicating them at 1,000 different web sites. To track the callactivity that results from these promotions, the advertising companymaintains a pool of 50,000 unique phone numbers.

For instance, at a single website, at the moment when a user searchesfor “dentist in Kansas City,” the advertising company communicates withthe website to insert advertisements for the ten dentists who havepurchased advertising for the Kansas City area. The ten dentists havepurchased the advertising by agreeing to “pay per call,” meaning theywill pay a fee, such as $5, at the moment a call comes in from apotential customer. The dentists can pay a higher fee if they would liketo be displayed higher than their peers. The advertising companydisplays the dentists in descending order from the highest per-callprice to the lowest.

When the advertising company displays the three advertisements upon thewebsite, it dynamically allocates unique phone numbers that appear inthe advertisements. This way, if a dentist is called by a potentialcustomer, the advertising company can determine which website wasresponsible for the call taking place. It can also determine the time ofthe call and bill the dentist the amount the dentist had agreed to payper call at that moment. Once having done so, the advertising companyroutes the call to the dentist's standard phone number, and the dentistreceives the call.

Of the ten unique telephone numbers that were displayed, several of themwere toll-free 1-800 or 1-866 numbers. One of them was a local KansasCity 913 area-code number because that dentist requested that hisadvertisement only be shown with a unique phone number that appears tobe local.

The advertising company is syndicating the ten dentists' advertisementsacross 1,000 different websites. Throughout the day, it is continuallydisplaying the ten dentists at hundreds of different sites, whenever anend user happens to search on dentists in Kansas City. In order to trackthe resulting call activity, if the advertising company were to allocatea unique telephone number for each dentist at each of the 1,000websites, it would have to allocate 10,000 unique telephone numbers.Since unique telephone numbers are costly to provision and maintain,this would be a very expensive proposition. The adverting company mustfind a way to minimize the unique telephone numbers it allocates, and byno means can it use more than the 50,000 total unique numbers it has inits pool.

In order to reduce the unique telephone numbers it must allocate, theadvertising company uses the present invention to dynamically allocateand recycle unique telephone numbers. In the case of the Kansas Citydentists, it does not allocate all 10,000 combinations to begin with.Instead, it only allocates a unique telephone number at the moment asearch is done for Kansas City dentists at a particular website. Thedynamic, “just in time” allocation, prevents the wasteful allocation ofnumbers to advertisements that may never be summoned and displayed.

Recycling Allocated Telephone Numbers

In one embodiment, a system records that a particular advertiser'sadvertisement was displayed at a certain time at a particular websitewith a particular unique telephone number. As more and moreadvertisements are displayed at different websites, in one embodimentthe system keeps track of when each of the allocated telephone numberswere respectively last displayed.

FIG. 22 presents a flow diagram describing one embodiment of recyclingtelephone numbers. In one embodiment, in process 2202 an active “displayqueue” of telephone numbers is maintained. The active display queuelists the telephone numbers according to the time they have beendisplayed from “youngest” (displayed recently) to “oldest” (displayedlonger ago).

When, for instance, an advertiser's advertising is displayed at aparticular website and a unique telephone number is required, in process2204 a telephone is selected from the “oldest” end of the display queue,or a telephone number that has not relatively recently been displayed.Since presumably there is a finite pool of numbers it could be that thephone number that is picked has been used before. But since it is the“oldest” number—displayed perhaps five weeks ago, there is a greaterprobability that this number will not be confused with the advertisementit was displayed with in the past. In this way, telephone numbers arerecycled based on the time of last display to reduce potentialconfusion.

In one embodiment, in process 2206 the system determines if the selectedtelephone number was recently displayed within a predefined period oftime. For instance, the system can check whether a telephone number wasdisplayed in a different context within, for example, in the last 24hours. If the selected telephone number was displayed within thepredefined period of time, in process 2208 then the number pool is indanger of over-recycling and the selected telephone number is notallocated at that time.

If the system determines the selected telephone number was not displayedwithin the predefined period of time, in one embodiment, in process 2210the system proceeds to determine whether the selected telephone phonenumber was recently called within a predefined period of time. Forexample, if a telephone number was displayed on a dentist'sadvertisement three months ago, but last called yesterday, it couldintroduce confusion if the number is reallocated to a plumber today.

If the system determines that the selected telephone number has not beendisplayed within a predefined period of time (e.g., 24 hours) and hasnot been called within a second predefined period of time (e.g., thelast 30 days), in process 2212 the system deems the selected telephonenumber to be safe, and the selected telephone number is allocated to bedisplayed in a new context.

As previously described, if the selected number (presumably the “oldestnumber” displayed) was last displayed within the predefined period oftime, the selected number does not pass the minimum threshold. As aresult, the number pool may then be in jeopardy of over-recycling andalternative measures are taken by the system to select a telephonenumber for allocation.

In one embodiment, the system then evaluates the number pool based onhow often the numbers have been called. In one embodiment, the systemmaintains an active “call-time queue” of the telephone numbers that havebeen called, listing them from “youngest” (called recently) to “oldest”(called longer ago). In process 2214, if the “oldest” number in thedisplay queue was last displayed within the predefined period of time,in one embodiment, the system then evaluates the “oldest” number in thecall-time queue. If the “oldest” number in the call-time queue was lastcalled in greater than the second predefined threshold, then systemselects the “oldest” number in the call-time queue to be allocated.

If neither the “oldest” number in the display queue nor the “oldest”number in the call-time queue meets the respective minimum thresholds,then other measures may be taken by the system. In process 2216, thesystem evaluates which of the two “oldest” numbers is closer to meetingits respective safety threshold, and selects that telephone number to beallocated for display. By evaluating numbers according to the time oflast display and time of last call, the system recycles numbers with thereduced probability for end-user confusion.

Due to the dual queue procedures, the system will not breakcatastrophically—it will only become gradually less safe if isoverburdened. If numbers are displayed and called too often, all numberswill be below the minimum display and call thresholds, but the systemwill still function. In fact, it will produce the most safe number giventhe pool it has to deal with. In the case of overburden, the system willautomatically cycle through the numbers faster, making them collectivelymore “dirty,” but not failing. In such a case, in process 2218 thesystem automatically issues a warning to the administrator at thispoint, indicating that more “clean” numbers need to be added to thenumber pool. In alternative embodiments, more or less of the processesdescribed in relation to FIG. 22 may be used.

In addition to optimizing the cleanliness of the pool of telephonenumbers, one embodiment of the system may execute procedures to improveefficiency of allocating recycled telephone numbers. FIG. 23 provides aflow diagram describing additional processes for allocating telephonenumbers in accordance with one embodiment. In process 2302 the systemdetermines if a particular advertisement (or different advertisementsassociated with the same advertiser) has summoned twice at the samewebsite. If the particular advertisement (or different advertisementsassociated with the same advertiser) has been summoned twice at the samewebsite, in process 2304 the system will reallocate the same phonenumber for both instances. If the particular advertisement (or differentadvertisements associated with the same advertiser) has not beensummoned twice at the same website, in process 2306 the system mayallocate a new phone number.

In addition, in one embodiment, when a caller dials a unique phonenumber that has been allocated by the system for display, in process2308 the system checks whether that caller (identified uniquely by theircaller ID) has ever dialed that unique phone number before. If so, inprocess 2310 the system connects the caller with the advertiser thatoriginally was associated with that unique phone number even if thephone number has now been reallocated to a second advertiser. Theprobability is the greatest that the caller is repeat-calling theoriginal advertiser. The chances are small that the same caller wouldcall two different merchants who both happen to have been allocated thesame unique phone number by the system. Therefore, for the increasedlikelihood of success, the system connects the caller to the advertiserthat the caller has called previously, even if the phone number hassince been reallocated.

In one embodiment, the system is also able to maintain separate pools ofunique numbers based on a variety of factors. FIG. 24 presents a flowdiagram describing the processes of maintaining the separate pools ofunique telephone numbers in accordance with one embodiment. In process2402, the system maintains different pools of telephone numberscorresponding to different partner syndicates. For instance, one largesyndicate may request that none of its numbers ever be recycled to mixwith a rival syndicate. In process 2404, the system maintains differentpools of telephone numbers corresponding to different categories ofadvertisers. For example, the system may maintain separate telephonenumber pools for democratic and republican causes to reduce chances thatcallers will be connected by mistake to the other party.

In process 2406, in one embodiment, the system provides selectadvertisers, or groups of advertisers, with firm numbers that do not getrecycled. Some advertisers, for instance, do not want their number toever change or be recycled, and the system can omit these advertisersfrom the recycling procedures, to provide them with constant telephonenumbers.

Similarly, in process 2408, in one embodiment, the system providesselected advertisers or groups of advertisers with specific telephonenumbers for a specified duration of time. Afterwards, the telephonenumbers may be recycled. For instance, a daily newspaper might publishthe trackable phone numbers of the five travel agents who have special“deals of the day.” In this case, the phone numbers should not changefor the duration of at least one day, after which they could then enterthe recycling process.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of theinvention, may be implemented as part of an operating system or aspecific application, component, program, object, module or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programstypically comprise one or more instructions set at various times invarious memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when readand executed by one or more processors in a computer, cause the computerto perform operations necessary to execute elements involving thevarious aspects of the invention. Moreover, while the invention has beendescribed in the context of fully functioning computers and computersystems, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the variousembodiments of the invention are capable of being distributed as aprogram product in a variety of forms, and that the invention appliesequally regardless of the particular type of machine orcomputer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.Examples of computer-readable media include but are not limited torecordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices,floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, optical disks (e.g.,Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks,(DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such as digitaland analog communication links.

Although the present invention has been described with reference tospecific exemplary embodiments, it will be evident that the variousmodification and changes can be made to these embodiments withoutdeparting from the broader spirit of the invention as set forth in theclaims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regardedin an illustrative sense rather than in a restrictive sense.

1. A method comprising: allocating, using a computing device, atelephonic reference to an advertisement of a first advertiser forpresentation to a first user; receiving, using the computing device, afirst call to the telephonic reference from a first user deviceassociated with the first user while the telephonic reference isallocated to the advertisement of the first advertiser; re-allocating,using the computing device, the telephonic reference to an advertisementof a second advertiser; responsive to a second call to the telephonicreference after the advertisement of the second advertiser is presentedwith the telephonic reference, determining, using the computing device,if the second call is from the first user device; if the second call isfrom the first user device, connecting the second call to the firstadvertiser; and if the second call is not from the first user device,connecting the second call to the second advertiser.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: determining, using the computing device,whether the second call is from the first user device based on a calleridentification service.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:responsive to the first call, connecting, using the computing device,the first user to the first advertiser.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the second call is received while the reference is allocated tothe advertisement of the second advertiser.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the telephonic reference is re-allocated, using the computingdevice, to the advertisement of a second advertiser after the telephonicreference is not called for a predetermined period of time and inresponse to a request that causes a presentation of an advertisement. 6.The method of claim 5, wherein the request comprises a search request.7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: responsive to theconnecting of the second call to the second advertiser if the secondcall is not from the first user, charging, using the computing device,the second advertiser a predetermined advertisement fee; and responsiveto the connecting of the second call to the first advertiser if thesecond call is from the first user, waiving, using the computing device,the first advertiser a predetermined advertisement fee if the secondcall is less than a predetermined time period from the first call.
 8. Asystem, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storinginstructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to:allocate a telephonic reference to an advertisement of a firstadvertiser for presentation to a first user; receive a first call to thetelephonic reference from a first user device associated with the firstuser while the telephonic reference is allocated to the advertisement ofthe first advertiser; re-allocate the telephonic reference to anadvertisement of a second advertiser; responsive to a second call to thetelephonic reference after the advertisement of the second advertiser ispresented with the telephonic reference, determine if the second call isfrom the first user device; if the second call is from the first userdevice, connect the second call to the first advertiser; and if thesecond call is not from the first user device, connect the second callto the second advertiser.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein theinstructions are further configured to instruct the at least oneprocessor to: determine whether the second call is from the first userbased on a caller identification service.
 10. The system of claim 9,wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the at leastone processor to: responsive to the first call, connect the first userto the first advertiser.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the secondcall is received while the reference is allocated to the advertisementof the second advertiser.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein thetelephonic reference is re-allocated to the advertisement of a secondadvertiser after the telephonic reference is not called for apredetermined period of time and in response to a request that causes apresentation of an advertisement.
 13. The system of claim 12, whereinthe request comprises a search request.
 14. The system of claim 8,wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the at leastone processor to: charge the second advertiser a predeterminedadvertisement fee, after the connecting of the second call to the secondadvertiser; and waive the first advertiser a predetermined advertisementfee if the second call is less than a predetermined time period from thefirst call, after the connecting of the second call to the firstadvertiser.
 15. A tangible computer-storage medium storing instructionsconfigured to instruct a computing device to: allocate a telephonicreference to an advertisement of a first advertiser for presentation toa first user; receive a first call to the telephonic reference from afirst user device associated with the first user while the telephonicreference is allocated to the advertisement of the first advertiser;re-allocate the telephonic reference to an advertisement of a secondadvertiser; responsive to a second call to the telephonic referenceafter the advertisement of the second advertiser is presented with thetelephonic reference, determine if the second call is from the firstuser device; if the second call is from the first user device, connectthe second call to the first advertiser; and if the second call is notfrom the first user device, connect the second call to the secondadvertiser.
 16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions arefurther configured to instruct the computing device to: determinewhether the second call is from the first user based on a calleridentification service.
 17. The medium of claim 16, wherein theinstructions are further configured to instruct the computing device to:responsive to the first call, connecting the first user to the firstadvertiser.
 18. The medium of claim 15, wherein the second call isreceived while the reference is allocated to the advertisement of thesecond advertiser.
 19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the telephonicreference is re-allocated to the advertisement of a second advertiserafter the telephonic reference is not called for a predetermined periodof time and in response to a request that causes a presentation of anadvertisement.
 20. The medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions arefurther configured to instruct the computing device to: charge thesecond advertiser a predetermined advertisement fee, after theconnecting of the second call to the second advertiser; and waive thefirst advertiser a predetermined advertisement fee if the second call isless than a predetermined time period from the first call, after theconnecting of the second call to the first advertiser.